Hello,

New to Inkscape and have encountered several bugs and crashes already but I'm wondering if this is one of them:

Every time I select any object or set of lines/paths and go to: Extensions > Visualize Path > Measure Path > (area) > (apply)
It will not calculate the area. It will sit there for about half a second with the "Working..." wait message, then nothing happens. No area appears on or near the object or anywhere on the sheet. It gives no error messages, so it must be something I've done wrong. The selected object is a grouped object drawn from a series of individual lines. The measurement texts are not a part of the selection.



Yes, I have hit "Convert object to Path" and have even hit "Convert Stroke to Path." All information I could search for about this just points to really old posts from 2008/9 when this feature didn't exist, or was new and wasn't working properly.

Am I pretty much doomed or is it some noob mistake I'm overlooking? As you can see this is a basic pattern block for tailoring and it would be pretty useful to get the area on the fly. I could always calculate it manually but that would take a long time for me to measure and get the angles in Inkscape then calculate slope, etc... I'd rather not deal with it

Thanks for taking a look!

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

Maybe more of a "noob" thing The Measure extension can't calculate the area created by individual segments (even if they are grouped), or an area enclosed by different objects. You can select all the segments, then use Path menu > Combine, which will create a compound path (comprised of several subpaths, which are the segments). Then you'll be able to measure the area inside that path.

Errch!! (apply the brakes!) The Measure extension does work when the paths are combined, but it always returns an area of 0 in^2 (0 square inches or whatever units). It looks like you'll have to join the nodes to create a single closed path. You won't need to do the Combine step, because it will happen automatically when the nodes are joined. First, select all the segments. Then do Ctrl + A, which selects all the nodes. Then click "Join selected nodes" button on Node tool control bar (3rd from left). Now you can use the Measure area extension on this, and get the correct result.

If you need to save the path that you measure for some reason, you can duplicate the segments before joining. You could even put it on a different layer, and hide that layer at times when you don't need it. This could be convenient for having different pattern sizes in the same file, by putting them on different layers! My mom taught me to sew, starting when I was 8 years old, so I understand the basics quite well. While she didn't teach me how to make patterns, I suspect that Inkscape is an excellent program to use for pattern making!

If, after measuring the area, you need to have the individual segments back, select the path, then do Ctrl + A. Then click "Break path at selected nodes" button on Node tool control bar. Then Path menu > Break Apart.

Just for a bit of extra info, here's how Stroke to Path works.



See the stroked path on the top which has 2 nodes. After Stroke to Path, the result is just below it. See how it now is a closed path with 4 nodes? On the bottom, I've removed the fill and added a stroke, to show the closed path.

Unfortunately, after doing stroke to path, you can't go back, except by Undo-ing. So that if you've closed the file, you can't go back to the original segments. If precision is important, you'll need to draw it fresh again. If it's not important, I can tell you how to edit the nodes, to get a single closed path (instead of the chain of smaller closed paths). But it probably will take as much time as drawing it again fresh.

PS - Do they not use notches anymore, on patterns, to aid in aligning pieces? Or maybe you just haven't drawn them yet?